Sunday, March 24, 2013

2008 – US TREASURY SUBMITS DRAFT LEGISLATION TO CONGRESS FOR AUTHORITY TO
“PURCHASE TROUBLED ASSETS” (i.e. BAIL OUT BANKING CORPORATIONS)
U.S. Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson, former Chair and CEO of Goldman Sachs
banking corporation, submits on behalf of the Bush Administration legislation
to bail out banking corporations that engaged in risky and bizarre mortgages
and investments. The legislation, called the Troubled Asset Relief Program
(TARP) was a whole 3-pages long. It requested a virtual $700 billion blank
check for the Administration. Public outrage was fierce. Calls against the
legislation to offices of some Senators and Representatives totaled 100 to 1
against it. The Administration was forced to pull the bill and substitute a new
one later. The original TARP bill is at http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/20/news/economy/treasury_proposal/index.htm